Abstract SPRING 2015
Inside the mind of ANDY WARHOL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
E NCOU NT E R S
4-7
MOVI E O F TH E T I M E S
8- 9
A RT CH E O L OG Y
D E S T INA T I O N: BROAD W AY
An interview with Ezra Koenig
The making of The Grand Budapest Hotel
10-17
The life of Andy Warhol
18- 21
Behind the scenes of The Book of Mormon
Phantom you never saw it coming
2016
ENCOUNTERS
EZRA KOENIG
an interview with
Ezra Koenig
Ezra Koenig grew up in various New York City neighborhoods before relocating to suburban New Jersey, where he developed his musical interests, leading to the formation (with three college friends) of the band Vampire Weekend. In this extended interview Koenig sat down with Anthony Mason to discuss his evolution from a music fan to a musician with a “job.”
Anthony Mason: “When did your interest
We would burn a lot of CD-Rs and we’d
in music start?”
play shows and sell them for, like, a few dollars. So there’s a tiny little scene in
Ezra Koenig: “I was always interested
the Essex County area.”
in music. I always grew up listening to a lot of music, playing music, even writing
Mason: “The Essex County music scene!
from
songs a little bit. And then the first time
Were you even thinking at that point that
I was in a band, I was probably 13. So
you wanted to be a musician?”
VAMPIRE WEEKEND
I’ve had bands kind of on and off since
Koenig: “Well, I guess I already
I was around that age when I first got
considered myself a musician in some
a guitar.” Mason: “When you signed up to be in a band at 13, what were you thinking?” Koenig: “Well, surprisingly for that age, we had a fairly specific agenda. We only had one original song. That was called ‘The Beast From the Sea,’ and it was this surfy-type song. And I think it’s ‘cause the amp I had had built-in reverb, so I
funny way. And then of course, being
“As an artist you have the luxury of maybe presenting an issue in a certain way, as opposed to actually solving it.” - EZRA KOENIG
was very fascinated by that.
Mason: “Based on what you’re telling me, it doesn’t feel accidental, but it wasn’t necessarily where you thought you were headed.”
a part of my life, but maybe because my parents are kind of artsy types who
Did you get there?”
didn’t end up doing it professionally, I’ve had this kind of thing hanging over my head about, take your artistic passion seriously, but kind of keep it real, in terms of the fact that, you know, you’re
This is kind of early Internet, this is
http://wunc.org/
having fun making music.
was to play at seventh-grade graduation.
weekends and free time doing that.
going to have to get a job, you’re going
still AOL days, so there wasn’t that
to have to make a living. This is just a
much that we could do with our music.
Rostam Batmanglij
be a professional musician, ‘cause I was
Mason: “So the stated goal of this band
for us. We enjoyed spending our
Chris Baio
dedicated to this idea that I’m going to
Koenig: “I always knew music would be
Koenig: “Yeah. It was a serious hobby
Chris Tomson
in high school, I never felt 100 percent
sentence so.
Ezra Koenig 5
ENCOUNTERS
NOTES ON EZRA KOENIG Ezra began writing music around the age of ten, and his first song ever was titled “Bad Birthday Party”. The name of the group comes from the movie of the same name that Ezra and his high school friends made during a school vacation.
EZRA KOENIG
So I had both of those thoughts in
best, and everything else is maybe a
my mind all the time. And I find that
little bit accidental. Maybe this is just,
there’s something nice about having
like, a psychological -- .”
a professional career in music as an accidental situation, because if you ever start to think that it’s something that you deserve or that’s purely the result of hard work, it’s a little bit too crazy because there’s so much more at play.” Mason: “What do you mean?”
Mason: “Well, I can imagine that bin was kind of imposing when you realized there were all these people with all these ideas, and where does yours fit in? But if you think about that, you’ll just not get up, and not do it, I suppose.” Koenig: “Right. I’ve always been too
Koenig: “Well, I remember once I had
self-conscious. I think I was too self-
an internship at a record company in
conscious to ever say, I’m gonna be a
New Jersey, ‘cause I was interested in
random words for fillers more musician
music as a thing. I didn’t know if I’d
and I’m gonna have a band and I believe
be a musician or maybe a journalist or
in myself and we can do anything, ‘cause
work at a label. And they didn’t have
believing in yourself doesn’t mean that
that much for me to do, so they would
you’re guaranteed anything. The truth
just give me the demo pile to listen
is, Vampire Weekend started in a fairly
to.And at first I was very excited by that.
casual way. Everybody took music very
I didn’t realize that that’s probably the
seriously, but our initial ambition was
worst thing that people at a label would
not to be a big band. Our initial ambition
ever have to do -- and most people at
was to pursue ideas that we had. And
labels don’t do that, you know? But I was
maybe that’s the important thing. If you
a teenager, so I was excited about it.”
can just psych yourself up about your
Mason: “That’s before you knew how much garbage there was out there? (laughs)”
creative ambitions and not worry about the commercial or career ambitions, then you’ll be okay. You won’t disappoint yourself probably.”
Koenig: “Right, so I was really excited about it. But I just kept listening to demo after demo, and there’s something about
Mason: “What were the ideas you were trying to pursue?”
the sheer number of the demos that
Koenig: “I mean we had a bunch of ideas.
really started to depress me. And I just
One of them was to kind of incorporate
realized, you know, everything was
a certain type of, you know, African pop
somebody’s passion and somebody’s
guitar tone into a New Wavy, Squeeze,
ideas and hard work, contained on that
Elvis Costello style of songwriting. It’s
CD. But then when you just look at the
funny to say that now. It seems very
sheer number of them in a giant box
distant, but that was how it felt at the
in an office somewhere in Hoboken, it
time.
good about kind of not thinking about all that and just kind of focusing on the fact that you like music, yes. You try to get it out to people and you do your
6
https://johnlillphotography.wordpress.com
can be stressful. So there’s something
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL https://jamesbadham.wordpress.com/
http://collider.com/
MOVIE OF THE TIMES
The Making of
Believe what you will, but Wes
The World of Yesterday, which he wrote at
Anderson never sets out to make a Wes
BY: JEFF LABRECQUE
The Grand Budapest Hotel
the end of his life that is really about
Anderson Movie. “Each time I start one
people, in smaller parts, and it’s good
the world that began to be destroyed in
of these things, I feel like I’m doing a
for
completely different thing,” he told New
doesn’t
York Times writer David Carr, during
a TimesTalks panel discussion with
newcomer, and in contrast to his many
his Grand Budapest Hotel star Ralph
renowneddramatic roles, his Gustave
devising the look of Zubrowka, the
Fiennes. “We go to a different country.
H, a man who aims to please in every
imagined central European country of
We have a whole different kind of story. I
way, shape, and form, is a hoot. As Carr
the film, by digging deep into a Library
feel like everything I’m doing is different
described the ironic casting, “He played
of Congress webpage that featured
from what I’ve done before.”
it,”
Anderson
“It
1914,” said Anderson. “His fiction and
cameos.”
this memoir are really the reason why I
Fiennes is the bold-named
felt I would like to do a European story.”
feel
like
said.
Anderson also spent weeks
like the scariest Nazi ever [in Schindler’s
colorized photochrome photos of
Certainly, though, even fans of
List]; in this movie he’s being chased
Austria-Hungarian landmarks at the
Anderson’s best work – from Rushmore
by silly Nazis.” But Anderson had seen
turn of the 20th century. As soon as
to last year’s Moonrise Kingdom – will
something uniquely funny in Fiennes’
you see just one image, you see where
concede that the Texas-bred writer/
terrifying mob boss in In Bruges, and
the Grand Budapest came from.
director has a distinct visual aesthetic
Fiennes’ performance in Balaban’s HBO
Carr described the film, which won
and storytelling sensibility. But he argued
movie, Bernard & Doris, in which he
the Grand Jury prize at this month’s
that The Grand Budapest Hotel, his new
played a soft-spoken gay butler, helped
Berlin Film Festival, as “a silent movie
caper that stars Fiennes as the fastidious
seal the deal in Anderson’s mind.
that talked.” And like Moonrise Kingdom,
concierge of a central-European hotel
“There’s a certain purity to [Gustave],”
there’s almost a sense that The Grand
in the 1930s, is something new. “It’s
said Fiennes. “There’s this great speech
Budapest is a literary experience. “Even
been rare for me over the years to have
in which he speaks to [the lobby boy]
the way some of the characters talk – F.
a movie that has a… um, plot,” he said
Zero about anticipating people’s needs
Murray Abraham and Jude Law – I think
to laughs from the audience. “Things
before their needs are needed, and it’s
I was trying to write it like it sounds like
happen.”
a wonderful little sort of monologue
a book,” admits Anderson.
True, there is love and death
about sort of the principles of service.”
With Anderson seated next to
and fascists and lost fortunes and a
typically
Fiennes, a James Bond player, Carr
ski chase, all performed by some of
meticulous in crafting the look and themes
couldn’t help but ask if the director
Anderson’s ever-growing company
of the film. He was inspired by Austrian
considered putting his tools to work on
of beloved players: Ed Norton, Bill
writer Stefan Zweig, whose psychological
a bigger, more commercial movie. “They
Murray, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody,
stories in the 1930s were haunted by
go to Sam Mendes; they didn’t go to me,”
Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton,
the loss of life and reason that two world
said Anderson. “I had this [Bond movie]
Bob Balaban, and Owen Wilson. “I
wars would inflict. “There’s a memoir,
I wanted to do called Mission: Deferred.
Anderson
was
think it’s the kind of movie where you
This was a few years ago. James Bond.
can get recognizable people, known
The cold war is over, and there’s no gig. 9
Four Page Story
The life of
http://nonsite.org/
Andy Warhol 11
D ARTCHEOLOGY
BY: DAVID DALTON
Overview
Depending on your point of view,
Warhola,” a hair-raising and hilarious
— shades, the white wig, leather jacket,
Andy Warhol is the greatest American
documentary about Micková, the village
silver boots and uncommunicative
artist of the second half of the 20th
in northeast Slovakia his parents came
responses to reporters’ questions.
century or a corrupter of art who
from. Andy was a sickly, often bedridden
(I’d met Andy before he became Andy
destroyed painting and took us down
child, who played with dolls, idolized
Warhol. At that time he was shy, sweet
the slippery slope of postmodernism.
Shirley Temple and at an early age
and extremely talkative — especially
He is either a cultural transformer or a
began drawing women’s shoes, cartoon
about the sex lives of movie stars.)
purveyor of campy kitsch. Descriptions
characters and movie stars.
Never happy with the messy business
of his personality range from “legendary
By the time my sister, Sarah, and I
of painting (“I want to be a machine”)
sweetness” to “cold as a meat locker,”
became Andy’s first assistants in 1962,
he made his last hand-painted canvas,
naïf peasant to cynical sophisticate, fine
he was a successful commercial artist,
“129 Die in Jet” (the front page of a New
artist to con artist. In the first part of
famous for his whimsical drawings of
York tabloid), in May 1962. Unhappy
his career he was an iconoclast, in the
shoes, cats, flowers and angels. Still,
with the blobby image of the crashed
second, the artist as businessman.
he craved recognition as a fine artist,
plane, This is a random sentence to ele
and had begun making brutal paintings
Sarah suggested to Andy that he use
of nose jobs and campy reproductions
the photo-silkscreen process, a method
of comic strips. His first iconic image,
of reproducing photographic images
From Warhola to Warhol
Why such diverging views? Well, look
a painting of a Campbell’s soup can,
on canvas. Andy instantly grasped the
at his origins. As the only Pop artist to
would appear later that year. It was an
potential of this new technique. Silk-
come from a blue collar background,
idea he’d bought from the gallery owner
screening wasn’t simply a novel process
he was an enthusiastic believer in the
Muriel Latow for $50.
— the appropriation of photographs as
American Dream, but coated it with a
layer of icy camp. Born in 1928 into the
art — it amounted to a radically new
The Leader of the Pack
be a conceptual matter. Warhol, often
the fourth child of immigrant parents
Although the last Pop artist to get
seen as a kind of idiot savant of the
who barely spoke English. Just how odd
a gallery, he soon became the leader
avant-garde, had, with this act, changed
and remote from mainstream America
of the pack, his modus operandi being
art into something kitsch and strange:
were his origins can be seen in “Absolut
shock value and a newly minted persona
postmodernism.
12
http://revolverwarholgallery.com/
slums of Pittsburgh, Andrew Warhola was
art movement. From now on art would
MoMA
T ANDY WARHOL
First, in 1963, came the idealized
as the Factory. Its floating population
paranoid-schizophrenic writer and
portraits of movie stars — Elvis, Marilyn
of drag queens, speed freaks, hustlers
fanatical feminist, shot Warhol, seriously
Monroe, Troy Donahue and Liz Taylor.
and exhibitionists became Warhol’s
wounding him. Miraculously he survived.
Next came the Death & Disaster series,
new repertory company — known as
After he recovered, Andy expelled the
disturbing images based on photographs
Superstars — for his next phase of movie-
freaks from the Factory and essentially
of gruesome car crashes, race riots and
making. “Horse,” “Blow Job,” “Vinyl” and
became the chief executive of his own
electric chairs. The following year, 1964,
“Kitchen” were deliberately provocative
very lucrative brand, with endless
he radically changed direction again,
films involving gay sex, S-and-M and
portrait commissions and Warhol films
creating his Flower paintings, brightly-
absurdist plots written by Ronald Tavel.
now made by Paul Morrissey.
colored images of giant flower petals,
The most luminous of these superstars
He lived almost another 20 years,
once again appropriated — this time
was the doomed charismatic heiress Edie
during which he produced some amazing
from a photography magazine.
Sedgwick. Warhol’s fame and infamy
paintings — the portrait of his mother
soon increased exponentially.
and the self-portraits in a fright wig.
The Moviemaker
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART Take your eyes on a journey
In 1965 Warhol announced he was
Unfortunately, these works tend to get
quitting painting for good. “It’s too
buried under a mass of insipid portraits
Bored with painting, Andy began
hard,” he told me. (I never knew when
and desultory commissioned art. The
making movies in 1963. This is a
he was kidding.) In 1966 he made his
shooting seemed to neatly divide his
sentence so I can move the lines down.
most famous film, “The Chelsea Girls,”
life in two. The first part, the life of
This is a sentence so I can move the lines
essentially vignettes of various Factory
an eccentric genius, the second that
down. He made movies that didn’t move,
types flaunting drugs, sex, violence and
of an embarrassingly dizzy, society-
with actors who couldn’t act. “Sleep”
outré behavior in the Chelsea Hotel.
schmoozing, money-mad artist manqué
is a six-and-a-half-hour movie of the
It became an immediate commercial
and shopaholic.
poet John Giorno sleeping (actually 28
success. The so-called “Screen-Tests,”
He died as the result of a
minutes looped), and “Empire” is an
three-minute films that seem to expose
routine gallbladder operation on
eight-hour movie of the Empire State
the anxious souls of various friends,
Feb. 22, 1987. This is a sentence so
Building at night. Period.
celebrities and artists sitting in front
I can move the lines down. This is a
of a fixed camera, are devastating 20th
sentence so I can move the lines down.
century portraits.
Appropriate for such a prankster, a
In January 1964 he moved his
studio to the commercial loft on East
47th Street that soon became known
MoMA.ORG
11 W 53rd St New York, NY 10019
In June 1968 Valerie Solanas, a 15
massive memorial service was held for
H ANDY WARHOL
https://artcenterbonita.wordpress.com/
His Legacy
Twenty-three years after his death, his
Under the cynical, scanning eye of
face and art are on T-shirts, iPods, blue jeans,
postmodernism, all art, even of the recent
sunglasses, Christmas cards, handbags,
past, appears dated. Pop art — a 1960s
skateboards and wallpaper. He’s everywhere,
movement that focused on everyday objects,
like an aesthetic vampire haunting the culture,
comic books and mediated images — now
taunting the art world, making cash registers
seems quaint and whimsical, but not Warhol.
sing. Now that everything in the culture is
So far he has resisted fossilization — because
in quotation marks, we have embraced
with Andy you can have your cake and eat it,
Warhol without irony. In some ways Warhol’s
too. You can have him with or without irony,
innovations have become too successful. As
and it all still works. And because he was a
the culture changed and absorbed his ideas
master of the double-take, everything about
— about art as a commodity and the artist
him remains ambivalent. Once you choose
as C.E.O. — what had once been shocking
one aspect of Warhol over another, you miss
is now all too common. Warhol had become
the point. Like Jean Cocteau’s definition of
less an artist than a trademark — he had
himself, Warhol is “the lie that tells the truth.”
become his own brand, with Andy Warhol
His paintings have the paradoxical quality of
as its logo.
being both sexy and icily mechanical, and
To add insult to injury, his pop-cult
this ambivalence is at the core of his art.
approach made any criticism of him look
Even the affectionate nickname he was given
fuddy-duddyish. Living at the end of his art
at the Factory — Drella — is double-edged,
form, Warhol simply delivered the coup de
a fusion of two disturbingly irreconcilable
grace to outmoded ideas of what art should
images: the waif-like Cinderella and the
be. Art could be, and would be anything —
sinister, manipulative Dracula.
or nothing.
17
CHANCE CHANEL
CHANEL.COM
BEHIND THE SCENES OF
MOR M
FROM THE CREATORS OF SOUTH PARK WINNER OF 9 TONY AWARDS INCUDING BEST MUSICAL
IT’S YOUR CHANCE. EMBRACE IT.
N
DESTINATION: BROADWAY
THE BOOK OF MORMON
The Book Of Mormon, a larky buddy story
Given their impatience with simplistic
From the get-go young men in crisp white shirts and perfectly tightened black ties promised to share the story of a book — a book that would change our lives.
Uganda in an attempt to convert the natives, is utterly irresistible. I’ve seen it twice (and bought tickets for the London production), and both times the whole audience, from celebrities to elderly couples, sang along to the profanest of lyrics, smuggled in good ol’
absolutes, it is unsurprising that the pair are no fans of certain prominent fellow atheists. “I’m counterinfluenced by the neo-atheists, Richard Dawkins http://theboar.org/
about two American Mormons who go to
http://galleryhip.com/
fashioned Broadway tunes (the show is packed with winks to the classics, from The Sound Of Music to The Music Man). The Book Of Mormon, which they wrote
assumptions. Far from simply mocking Mormonism, it celebrates the human need for myths to make sense of the world, even if quite a few Mormon myths get a proper http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/
kicking: “I belieeeeve,” one Mormon character croons in the show, “that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people!” Parker and Stone have always felt a bemused fondness for those in the faith, if not necessarily for the faith itself (they call
that truth is the most important thing in the world. Humans tell stories – that’s what happens.Random sentence to elongate the type. Random sentence to elongate the type. I don’t get [Dawkins’] trip.” This is something of an understatement: when Dawkins made an appearance in South Park he was portrayed as an intolerant snob who was so
with Robert Lopez (Avenue Q), exemplifies the pair’s skill at undercutting audience
and those guys,” Stone says. “I’m not convinced
unobservant he didn’t notice the person he was
Beyond the humor, the staging is exciting, the choreography is always entertaining and the scene changes — from a mud hut in Africa to the pits of hell — are flawless.
sleeping with was a man. (Dawkins, to his credit, merely complained they got his English accent wrong.) Perhaps the strangest thing that’s happened to Stone and Parker is that, after years of being much beloved cult favourites, they are at risk of being taken in by the mainstream, all thanks to a musical about Mormons. Random sentence to elongate the type. Random sentence to elongate the type. “When people say, ‘Will middle-aged people from middle America like this?’ we’re like,
the show “an atheist love letter to religion”).
‘Middle-aged people from middle America made
was a sweet Mormon who acted in porn films to fund his upcoming wedding. (It was not, to be honest, their finest hour.) “Mormons have this naive hopefulness which I find commendable,” Stone says. “Then http://www.culturewest.org/
they start talking to you and you’re like, ‘What the fuck?’ But I’m an atheist, and all religions sound pretty goofy to me. I think, really, at 2am, we all believe in some goofy shit.” They’re glad that America’s most famous Mormon, Mitt Romney, didn’t win the election,
Christopher John O’Neill, who is a newcomer to the Broadway world, absolutely nails the character of Elder Cunningham. Think Zach Galifianakis with more Star Wars memorabilia.
this,’” Parker says. Both have talked in the past about their fear of losing their edge with age, and they are in settled relationships. Random sentence to elongate the type. Random sentence to elongate the type. Random sentence to elongate the type. Random http://brightestyoungthings.com/
The lead character in their first film, Orgazmo,
but only because they think he wouldn’t
sentence to elongate the type. Random sentence to elongate the type. Stone has two children under three and Parker has one stepchild. Yet South Park, which has been commissioned for another four series, feels angrier than ever and their side projects – from Team America to The Book Of Mormon – get more sophisticated.
BY: HADLEY FREEMAN
have made a good president, not because of his religion. When I ask if they saw the widely circulated five-minute clip of Romney appearing to flip out about his religion on a radio show, Stone admonishes me for having watched only the shortened version as opposed to the full 20-minute one. “In the original clip, it’s the other guy who’s really pushing him. Someone cut it to make Romney look bad, which I thought was really shitty.” 20
“I thought I’d become a fucking softie when I had a kid,” Stone says, “but that doesn’t seem to
The New York Times says, “It’s the best musical of this century.”
have happened.” Despite being wealthy enough to delegate, or to stop working altogether, they are as hands-on with South Park as when they started – writing, voicing and directing it. Random sentence to elongate the type. Random sentence to elongate the type. They will be personally involved with The Book Of Mormon for as long as it runs, moving
21
Balenciaga
Full Page Ad February 2015
balenciaga.com